Insane Killer Caught

School is back in session, autumn’s nip is in the air and a criminally insane killer is on the loose, or was.

Mr Paul is the Platonic Ideal of an insane killer, if it weren’t true I’d suspect it was an urban legend. An undiagnosed schizophrenic, in 1989 he killed an elderly woman he was convinced was an evil witch. He soaked her lifeless body in gasoline to throw off search dogs and buried her in her own flower garden.

Hospitalized for years he escapes in 1991, and is recaptured. During booking Paul knocks an officer unconscious.

In September 2009, knowing he was allowed to go on a supervised outing to the Spokane State Fair he packed a back pack full of clothes and his guitar to bring with him, obviously planning an escape. For days Paul evaded capture while a man hunt was mobilized. He was captured while hitch hiking. The same officer Paul knocked out in 1991 picked Paul up and brought him inm to justice. What a story!

Mr Paul

Old poster for the Spokane Fair.

Insane killer caught in Goldendale, Wash., area
By TIM KLASS  |  AP  |  9-21-09

SEATTLE — An insane killer who slipped away from the staff of a mental institution at the Spokane County International Fair has been recaptured without injury in the in Goldendale in south-central Washington.

Spokane County sheriff’s Capt. Dave Reagan says 47-year-old Phillip Arnold Paul was nabbed by Deputy Roger Knight — the same deputy who arrested Paul and was injured by him after an escape in 1991.

Reagan says Paul was trying to elude a search helicopter and walked to a road to try to hitch a ride just as Knight arrived at the scene.